Free Republic

Sarah Palin Explains Paul Revere’s Midnight Ride Jim Newell— It's been at least a few seconds since we last checked in on Sarah Palin's Tour de Grift, which stopped yesterday in Olde Boston Towne. Her bus visited such historical sights as Paul Revere's old shack, where Palin explained the colonist's famous "midnight ride" before the 1775 battles at Lexington and Concord.The Internet is aflame in scholarly debate over this interpretation:He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't going to be taking away our arms uh by ringing those bells and making sure as he's riding his horse through town...

BOSTON -- Paul Revere gets all the glory for his midnight ride. After all, it was a stirring tale of patriotism told by a great storyteller. But one young messenger who called the colonists to arms during a remarkable five-day dash across five states is a mere footnote -- a man mentioned in historical documents that didn't even get his first name right. They called him Trail. His name was Israel Bissell, and he is one of the Revolutionary War's most unheralded heroes. Bissell, a 23-year-old postal rider when the war broke out on April 19, 1775, rode day and...

...Paul Revere, born in Boston in 1734... After the death of his father in 1754, Paul enlisted in the provincial army to fight in the French and Indian War... When the war was over, he returned to Boston to take over his father's silversmith business, only to fall into financial difficulties during the Stamp Act of 1765. Frustrated by this gave him cause to join the Sons of Liberty... On the night of April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren sent Revere to send the signal to Charlestown that the British troops were on the move... His journey ended in Lexington where...